I am writing today to announce the closure of the Michigan Messenger. After four years of operation in Michigan, the board of the American Independent News Network, has decided to shift publication of its news into a single site, The American Independent at Americanindependent.com. This is part of a shift in strategy, towards new forms [...]
An abstinence-only presentation provided to numerous school districts in Calhoun and Eaton Counties in October of this year provided false and misleading information to students about HIV, experts allege.
Two county registers of deeds filed a class action lawsuit Monday on behalf of Michigan’s 83 counties alleging that the Mortgage Electronic Registration Services owes millions of dollars in property title transfer taxes.
Despite evidence of the impact of mercury on children and public health, Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette last month joined with 24 other state attorneys general in filing a lawsuit to scuttle new EPA regulations that would reduce mercury emissions from power plants.
The Pew Center on the States released a report that should be terrifying to taxpayers and particularly to public employees. The state of Michigan has $50 billion in unfunded pension and healthcare obligations for retirees, the bulk of it being a shortfall in money available to pay for future healthcare. The Detroit Free Press reports:
Michigan taxpayers are on the hook for more than $50 billion in unfunded pension and retiree health care for future public sector retirees, according to a new report on state retirement systems from the Pew Center on the States…
Michigan’s pension systems, which include state employees and school teachers, have $70.4 billion in anticipated payouts to current and future retirees.
About $11.5 billion of that is unfunded, according to Pew. Michigan’s pension funds actually compare favorably to most other states, funded at an 84% level, above the national average and the 80% level recommended by experts, Pew said.
The picture for retiree health care is bleaker. Pew pegs Michigan’s liability for health care and other non-pension benefits (such as life insurance) at $40.7 billion, with only a small fraction (1.9%) currently funded. Only California, New York, New Jersey and Illinois have larger gaps.
The Michigan constitution forbids those benefits from being lowered after the fact, which means that when the bill comes due the only option is to raise taxes on current workers to pay for the benefits of retired workers. The only other option is a significant reduction in benefits now, which is what is currently happening.
Part of Gov. Granholm’s proposed budget for next year is a call for an end to vision and dental insurance for retired state employees.
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